The most horrendously depressing anime ever have been solemnly ranked by ashen-faced anime fans in this list, showing most are still reeling from a certain recent magical girl massacre of truly historic proportions.

Seems like more than half of these are only in the top ten due to the otaku short term memory problem. I actually liked madoka unlike some of the haters here, but I’m not a slave to the hype and don’t think it really deserved to be at the top of this list. It was sad, sure but didn’t hit me half as hard as playing Muv-Luv Alternative did.

So for the stuff that’s more than a few years old, you know it deserves it’s place simply for making an impression that lasted this long in the otaku community. Stuff like Fireflies and Bokurano go without saying.

For be Evangelion will always be no.1 though, not because it made me cry, but simple because it was so depressing. Even once I managed to get my head around the mindfuck, I was still lost all hope after watching the MC finally drag himself to his feet and act like he deserved to be the hero towards the latter half of the series, only to fall straight to rock bottom and become completely useless for the finale. Everything he had done, all his efforts meant nothing and he was just swept away by events out of his control. If Rei hadn’t put him in the drivers seat and let him choose to remain like that or go back to his individual form, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Depressing stuff.

Saikano though. Read the manga of that, left me hollow.

Would have liked to see Cowboy Bebop on here though, since i was left teary by the final episode, even if most of the series was easy going.

In 12 episodes they did almost nothing but talk, and most of the fight scenes (Which there were only a few of) looked so horrendous because of the different art style of everything around them. It was hard to tell whether they had a good or bad budget.

I felt so depressed after watching it because I realized I had completely wasted my time. I guess that’s what happens when you try to get a story out with a measly 12 episode limit: Your time is wasted trying to introduce the characters, trying to tell their back stories, etc, then filler episode at around 10 or so, then it ends.

I like both Madoka and Evangelion, but Madoka overtopping everything is basically blasphemy to the other more depressing shows. Evangelion instead of Madoka should be at the top, the end of Madoka was one of the most uplifting/hopeful scenes I have ever watched (Madoka going Jesus anyone?) and the end of Evangelion did fuck up my entire real life childhood and adolescence in more ways than one!

Higurashi in 6th place? While it constantly did horrible things to it’s characters, for me the last ending of Kai was the most unexpected good ending in anime history. (I never watched Rei, but is that even part of the original story?)

Personally I would like to see Air and Chrno Crusade on a list like this.

It doesn’t matter how depressing it is. I can still fap to it, in fact this is just a challenge list for me and I will fap to every one of these. I am on number 14 now but I am getting a little drained out. I almost needed to watch the second episode to finish up on number 13 but がばて。

I have found a good few Anime to be sad, and I have found I select few to be tearjerking (which I define as just being REALY sad, or actually making me cry) which to me would be AnoHana and Clannad: After Story.

However, I find almost no Anime to be depressing. I think of a depressing Anime as not something that brings me to tears per-say, but something which worsens my mood for a good period of time into a somber state or some kind of melancholy. To date, I only think of one Anime as depressing and that is 5 Centimeters Per Second. It didn’t move me to tears but it did turn my outlook for the worse for a little while. I do however think that a sizeable part of why 5CPS depressed me is because of the timing I watched it. I watched it near the end of my senior year in High School when my graduation was just around the corner. I was happy to finally get out of High School, however I couldn’t get over the underlying feeling that I would not be able to keep up with the close friends I had made during my years in HS, and that we would just stop seeing each other entirely. That feeling coupled with watching 5CPS right around that time was a combination that did not do well for my outlook on things. I am not taking away anything from the movie as it was an excellent piece of Anime that was beautiful in more ways than one, but I did watch it it at a very opportune (inopportune?) time for it to have the greatest effect on me.

As for Blood-C and School Days, I don’t regard them as sad, tearjerking, nor depressing. I consider them rage inducing. I consider them concentrations of ire, anguish, despair, and pure rage. I consider them inky black stains upon my grey matter that I have tried time and time again to purge from my brain for them only to pop up again when I least want it to like some kind of demonic tumor. And that is all that needs to be said about them.

The original Evangelion is about a weak boy who hates himself, is afraid of other people, and goes on to kill the whole world. I can’t comment on the others you mentioned because I haven’t seen them.

I don’t think Higurashi belongs on this list. It had a happy ending where Rika reached a kakera where everyone survived. Umineko’s considerably more grim but even it has a lot of fighting against the darkness sentiment when it stresses how much of your existence is how you respond to sorrowful events.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is 1st as being one of the most depressing?? Well… Depressing perhaps, but more than anything it was definitely one of the most shocking series I’ve seen in quite a while. It took the whole magical girl genre and skinned it alive, for sure.

I don’t know, personally, it wasn’t shocking at all for me. From the very beginning it was putting out a dark vibe and if you put a little thought into it as the show was going along, you could predict it. I don’t think there was a single thing that happened that made me think “I wasn’t expecting that”. It was a decent show, for sure, but it wasn’t really full of as much awe as some say it is.

Maybe it’s because of all the anime I have watched over the years (I usually watch most of the shows that come out each season for the past 6yrs, and I have been watching anime since the 90’s). As long as you don’t peg something as being the same ol’ same ol’ from a specific genre and instead pay attention to the signs a show gives you, you can easily enough predict where something’s going to go and what it’s going to do to the characters.

As for the characters, Homura and to a lesser degree, Kyouko, were really the only interesting ones.

-sigh- you people seriously have no idea wat depression means do you? Depressing doesn’t mean it made you sad or made you cry, NO DEPRESSING means by watching the anime it cause you to go into an emotional shock for awhile and you were emotionally numb after that. Madoka Was indid depressing but for it to be #1? NO! hell Mai-Hime was more depressing than that anime. The only really depressing thing about madoka was episode 10, thats pretting much it (But thats my opinion only)

How the hell was blood-C even depressing? yeah there was death and what not but you never get attatched to the characters for long enough.

i dont understand,…. why ppl from here actually mixed up the meaning of depressing and sad,….

yeah clannad sad, but depressing?, i dont feel that way sorry,

saikano?, yes it is sad story, but depressing? far from it,

this is list of depressing anime not sad anime, i think sankaku already put the list for sad anime, if you want to complain [insert key production adapted into anime], or [any sad anime] please go there.

Think more about Madoka ending.
Seems to be a kinda happy ending. But its not really.
Bittersweet at most.
For Homura, flat plain depressing. You know, she is wandering the world, inmortal battling those things, unable to see her beloved one until… who knows how long… maybe until the humanity is long dead… or even maybe unitl the heat death of the universe.

Out of what Ive seen on the list, the only one I actually found depressing was grave of fireflies.I suppose parts of elfen lied with the lolis but the gore kinda made it difficult to take seriously. Narutaru as well but its been so long since I watched it that it forget how I felt about it.

Not sure how school days and higurashi are depressing. Theyre so full of yandere fun and suspense. I also disagree with all the people saying key anime should be on here. While parts of them are QQ they nearly always end with a somewhat happy resolution. They make the viewer experience a range of emotions but at the end never leave her or him depressed so how are they depressing exactly? After I finish a Key anime I typically feel uplifted not depressed.

The thing about basilisk is… the tragedy is caused by ninjas holding the idiot ball all the time. All the time!!!
One should wonders how the entire clans survived until the time of the story, since being stupid seems to be the standard modus operandi.

Really. Character deaths in CG were over dramatized and unrealistic. It’s obvious that the writers wanted to make an impact by killing them as opposed to killing them because it makes sense in the story.

I don’t remember Shuffle being that depressing. The ending was actually rather cute, especially the imr-credits scenes.

And how can you miss Gilgamesh? It’s a crapsack world with incest and horrible cloning abuse which ends with the Earth being destroyed and mankind being proven utterly depraved. The bad guys lose. The good guys lose. No one wins — in fact, there’s an implication that all life ceases to exist forevermore, with no upside whatsoever. Nothing the protagonists do makes the slightest amount of difference, and they stand no chance whatsoever against the antagonists, who wipe them out with little effort. ROCKS FALL EVERYONE DIES.

[quote]which ends with the Earth being destroyed[/quote]
So, a happy end? I don’t see how that is depressing.

[quote]mankind being proven utterly depraved[/quote]
That’s not much of a secret.

[quote]No one wins[/quote]
Just like in real life. Now, that is depressing.

[quote]in fact, there’s an implication that all life ceases to exist[/quote]
As long as the universe is capable of supporting any form of information processing, life can exist under the right conditions. The only way to ensure that no life will ever exist is to destroy the universe and make sure it’s permanent, because you won’t be around to check on it.

Saikano is No1 for me by far I have see almost everything in this list but nothing make me feel so horrible like Saikano this anime stigmatize my heart & soul so much that even when I see a pic of the characters or some poster in net all the dark feelings return to my mind and make my stomach race.. seriously I have see over 400 maybe more than 500 anime but this thing was the most depressing anime I have ever see…

Saikano would be depressing if the whole premise of the show wasn’t so utterly ridiculous. It’s “Girl meets boy, fall in love, BUT GIRL IS BEING REBUILT TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE WEAPON CAPABLE OF DESTROYING THE WORLD!!!!!”… it’s utterly retarded, and there’s no suspension of disbelief at all, just teenage angst.

I’ve seen a bunch of these and I can’t say all are depressing. Some are just insane ending more in line with depression and psychopathic than actually depressing.

But I will say Grave of the Fireflies was as depressing an anime as I could imagine. I don’t think they could do it justice how depression that anime was even if they did it again. The futility of that anime to what its like for children in time of war is depressing and then we see the news of the Iraq and Afghan and it all starts again.

Lets see,about the ones i have watched at least:
Narutaru had that feeling toward the end,but it was more like weird and bizzare.FMA wasnt a depressing anime in overall,although it had its moments.Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 was just sad in the finale(it could be a lot more cruel with its concept,but it wasnt).A dog of flanders deserves to be in the list,one of the saddest yet among the best movies i had the pleasure to watch,and it should be a lot higher in the list.Umineko…wtf? the only depressing thing is that it never made it to a 2nd season.5CM per second wasnt depressing,it had an emotional beauty of love through distance.Elfen Lied had just some loli killing and fanservice,ye there was some sad pasts,but heck it wasnt depressing,more like splatter enjoyment.Higurashi…??? i cant see what exactly was depressing,especially when the finale was a happy one,it shouldnt be in such a list,instead it should be among the top Horror/Mystery anime’s.Grave of the fireflies is actually the only one that has a correct number and spot in this list,gj.
And about the last 2…well School Days is only good for a hentai game,as for the anime,depressing really? in what way? because that shitty character got what he deserved? ,i can say i for once enjoyed only the last episode of this anime.
And about that Madoka,well this anime is overhyped,the only spot it deserves is among the copycat mahou shoujo animes,and the *fail to impress anyone except people without any high and quality standars,that likes to watch only garbage list* depressing? nah more like boring to death,how it can be depressing when every character in the anime can get rezzed again in zero time,and without any limits,this is even more ridiculous than DragonBall’s resurections.
And finally this list is fail just for the fact that it hasnt in the first 2 spots Naruto and Bleach.Those are the saddest animes i have ever seen…they manage to bring me to tears everytime i see a new filler,and everytime i see the current Naruto opening(oh god why i saw that thing again,the most ridiculous opening they could make)

.. I don’t get how many of those are depressing… Like sure, kamisama dolls is ONLY depressing because they teased us about what would of happened if they had more episodes, but other than that, the season was fairly empty. Same thing with blood-c. Stuff like school days, it brings the biggest smile to my face watching the Nice Boat ending. Bokurano, it sorta can’t be depressing; its stated they WILL die, no matter what. If there was something they could do to fight against their fate, it would be different, but when its fact, oh well.

Madoka wasn’t bad for me. It was grim, but hopeful. Same with Higurashi – bit by bit, they got closer to getting it right.

Evangelion… was so depressing it soaked into the rest of the mecha genre. Berserk was pretty depressing too, but mostly because I waited for the whole series for it to get half as cool as the start again. Then, just as it teased with something interesting, it ended.

Also, most shows that end in “Flash, Dash, Crash” etc are pretty depressing if you’ve seen the originals.

Shouldn’t Fafner be a bit higher? I mean, considering the “victories” shown are of the “successfully defended” variety and the humans are almost always on the defensive, and human reproduction is greatly hampered…

I picked that up on DVD as pretty much a complete blind buy. I thought it was a great series, but I had no idea it was going to be such a depressing dark series. The first episode makes you almost think it’s going to be a comedy and then you watch episode 2.

I had to come more than halfway down the list before someone mentioned this one. depressing as fuck. So depressing that after watching it, I no longer felt all the bad about my life. A cartoon made me feel that. That is powerful shit. Then I watched texhnolyzed. D=

school days wasnt depressing,makoto died like a man!(minus him flailing around,drolling and crying all at the same time while being stabbed)but yeah he layed piped to every girl and died for doing it! and i know this it off topic but,did anyone else watch the new black rock shooter that came out? i know its only ep 1 but it confuses me..

Yosuga no Sora the last arc was kinda depressing it was a bleak anime, but for me the setup with endings mean you could just which ever ending you wanted too thus it was too depressing. It was a bloody good anime tbh.

Holy crap. These people found things like Eva, School Days, and Penguindrum to be depressing? They probably wouldn’t even survive watching Saikano – no wonder it didn’t rank as high as it should have… most of the people who actually watched it probably got so depressed they couldn’t bring themselves out of the lasting funk long enough to vote.

No Cowboy Bebop? Everyone splits up at the end right when Faye finally regained her memories and found a place to belong and of course what happened to Spike and Julia. In fact, alot of the episodes through out the series had tragic/bitter sweet endings. I think that’s what made the series so memorable.

same here. I was expecting (stop reading this if you still haven’t seen Air TV, or played the original game, and miraculously managed to avoid spoilers up to this point… in which case, you go fucking watch the series, now!)….

Yukito sacrificing himself, possessing his doll, and somehow going back in time to reincarnate as a crow would’ve done something for Misuzu herself… but it was really only good for her cycle of reincarnation (and even that was merely implied). The girl was still doomed to go out in what is still easily one of the most heart-wrenching scenes Key ever made (which is saying a lot for them).

clearly only a few people have watched saikano, or else it would be more near the top the top, thats why these lists are useless: only people who have watched all these animes have a right to vote, or else it just a popularity contest

anon@00:34
i just got the funniest vision after reading your comment. at first i was like, what’s this dude’s problem. then i got to thinking, what if someone like you (people who immediately overreact and start swearing) got a reality tv show and spoke to people in person they way you attack others online. it would be a great show. here are some line i just came up with for shits and giggles.

random guy: you know, the human heart is the strongest muscle in the human body.

you: what the fuck are you talking about, you dickhead! can you do pullups with your heart? no, it can’t do shit!

random guy: no i read it in popular science magazine. researchers from harvard performed…
(cut off)

you: that’s bullshit! you can’t believe everything you read in a magazine. those mother-fuckers are so busy sucking each others dicks that they just wrote something down to justify all that time in the lab together swallowing each others cum.

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to mention Texhnolyze. Although depressing, there’s still a kind of dignified serenity to the last scene. The main guy dies completely sane (finally) & he doesn’t die alone (if you interpret the hologram a certain way).

Still, it is an apocalyptic tale & is by default a very depressing thing.

I agree, I couldn’t stop crying for at least an hour after it was done. Madoka wasn’t so much depressing as it was a mind-screw, but I do have to admit that the last episode got to me. But straight up depressing? That’s something that can be debated.

Narutaru was memorable mainly for how it pulled such a nasty bait-and-switch on the viewers. It’s like “aww, so cute” for the first episode or so, and by the end, a little girl was molested with a fucking test tube.

Nope, hope it was depressing, the anime was just plain awful, the guro scenes were made like lets do a guro scene, nothing huge and the story was plain dam stupid. To stupid, in my case this was not depressing but a waste of time.

I’m afraid that I will have to second that, despite how much my brother loved it….

Though Grave of the Fireflies has to be on the top of the list. It was so traumatic that I remember every scene from viewing it just once – I’ll never have to see it again. Still it was well made. On the one had I can reccomend that its something to see if you want to see a well made anime. But there is a risk – you may not want to see it again, due to its poignancy.

Where the fuck is Clannad? Where the fuck is Lain? Where the fuck is Boogiepop Phantom? Where the fuck is Ergo Proxy? Where the fuck is Code Geass? Death Note? Welcome to the NHK! (?) Texhnolyze? Berserk? Shiki? And whatnot else.